(Israel Hayom) Nadav Shragai - In response to a Palestinian Authority initiative, UNESCO has decided to stop using the term "Temple Mount" and from now on will refer to the holiest site in Judaism as the "Al-Aqsa Mosque." For hundreds of years, Muslim scholars wrote in their own religious and historical texts that Solomon's Temple was located on the Temple Mount. They include Jerusalem-based Muslim historians such as Al-Muqaddasi or Aref al-Aref, Iranian scholar Al-Mastoufi, the poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, and the Muslim preacher Abu Bakhar al-Wasati. In the time of Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Waqf published a visitor's guide to the Temple Mount that read, "The site's identification with the Solomonic Temple is beyond all doubt." The Temple's existence is supported by archeological discoveries such as a fragment of a Second Temple-era Greek inscription found near the Lion's Gate, or the corner where trumpets were blown to herald the start of the Sabbath and holidays, unearthed at excavations at the compound's southern wall. And, of course, there is the Bible, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and a wealth of Jewish and other historical sources that show that the Temple stood on the Temple Mount.
2016-04-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive